Sad Day

Wow. What a tough loss. I really can't say much more than that. I think this is the most heart-breaking loss I've ever experienced for one of my teams. I actually feel depressed and sad right now.

But I wanted to make sure to come on here and say Congratulations to the Panthers on a spectacular season, a season that goes down as the best in school history in my book.

To Sam, Levance and Tyrell: Thanks for the memories of the last 4 seasons. It has been an amazing run, and I feel extra special attachment to you three because you were my classmates, entering school here at the same time as me and leaving at the same time. You guys will always hold a special place with me.

Also, congrats to Villanova, the victors tonight. It's hard for me to be objective but I think that was one of the best college b-ball games I have ever seen. I wish you guys good luck in the Final Four and I will be pulling for you to represent the Big East well.

I don't think I'll be even able to watch or read anything sports for the next couple days, let alone write about it. With that in mind, i think TRS will be on hiatus for 48 hours so that I can digest everything that just happened.

Go Panthers!

Sam's The Man

The hype was all about Thabeet vs. Blair. It turns out that angle was vastly overblown. This game was all about Sam Young against...well the entire UConn team it turns out.

UConn could've thrown their entire team at Sam I Am (and they did at times) and I don't think it would have mattered today. Young was a man possessed in his final game at the Petersen Events Center. He posted a ridiculous 31 points and 10 rebounds on the Huskies, more than half of UConn's point total, en route to a spectacular 70-60 finale at the Pete.

Besides Young's career day, it was also a day for celebrating two other important seniors, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs. Both performed exactly how you'd expect them to in this type of big game. Despite a tailbone bruise, Fields posted a double-double with 10 points and 12 assists, continuing the amazing senior campaign he's posted. His shot may not have been falling as often as it usually does, but his spectacular quarterbacking more than made up for it. Tyrell Biggs, meanwhile, continued fulfilling the yeoman's role as well as anyone. He didn't get on the scoreboard, but he did have 6 rebounds and a block and played very well when matched up against Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet. Biggs has been the ultimate team player/ unsung hero type that Pitt has built their program around for the last decade or so.

Also, in what some have said could be DeJuan Blair's final game, the big fella had a quieter game than usual. He managed to sort of stay out of foul trouble, especially in the second half. But he seemed content to just neutralize Thabeet defensively and let Sam carry the load at the other end. And there was nothing wrong with that, as it was the best gameplan for the Panthers in the long run, especially after Thabeet had a very good first half.

One of the running subplots in recent weeks in Big East play has been who the Big East Player of the Year was going to be. For the most part I thought it was down to DeJuan Blair or Hasheem Thabeet, with Luke Harangody having a shot if the voters suddenly became mentally impaired. Well, I think Sam Young might have thrown his name back in that ring today. He has been surprisingly overshadowed for much of the season by Blair's excellence, but he was by far the best player on that court today. I also think Levance Fields should get some recognition for his great work this year. It's really hard for me to even pinpoint exactly which one of these three I would call my team MVP. At gunpoint, it has to be Blair, but the difference is quite negligible between our Big Three.

I also wanted to mention that it was my last game as a member of the Oakland Zoo. I really couldn't have asked for a better finish, either. This might have been the best game I've seen from the vantage point of the Zoo. I also don't know that I've been a part of a more amped-up and generally excited bunch than was there today. I just went through the replay on my DVR and couldn't get over how loud and fired up the crowd was toward the end of the game, as well as how venomous things got when the refs made a few highly questionable calls midway through the first half. All in all, it has been a great run in the Zoo, and knocking off number 1 is a hell of a way to go out.

Pitt Rebounds Against Syracuse

The lone blemish on the Pittsburgh sports weekend belonged to the Pitt basketball squad in their Saturday evening loss to Louisville on their home turf. It was a tough loss that was made more difficult by Pitt holding a sizable 10 point lead late in the game and some spotty officiating that drove me to the brink of insanity.

I was more than a little worried about this game tonight, because while Pitt has had a lot of success against the Orange of late, the Cuse are still a very good squad and are one of the few teams that actually have the ability to match up with DeJuan Blair's uhmm... girth... on the inside. And being that the Cuse are at 8, they are obviously a pretty good and pretty frisky squad.

But the Panthers put on an absolute statement game with a 78-60 smackdown of Syracuse. The game was infinitely tighter at the half at 31-28 Pitt, and the Panthers were clanking the free throws early on causing a near-riot in the stands at the Pete. But the second half was a very different story, as Pitt outscored the Orange 47-32 in that stretch and coasted to a big win on the backs of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, and Levance Fields.Outside of the Big 3, there wasn't much scoring done by this squad, as those three had a whopping 57 points. The other guys on the roster all filled their roles very well, though, especially in that exciting second half.
-Tyrell Biggs put up an 8 point 5 rebound night and was relentless in his physicality inside against Syracuse. The Orange were really shaken up by how insanely physical the Panthers are. Despite Syracuse having two tanks inside in Jackson and Onuaku, the Orange just seemed very uncomfortable to me.
-Jermaine Dixon didn't have the scoring touch he's had in the past few games, but he had another very nice evening, doing a bit of everything. He's excellent guarding the perimeter, had a stunning block on a Syracuse breakaway, made a few steals happen, and continues to be a pretty effective penetrating guard. I think this kid has a much higher ceiling than I would have expected when I first saw him play.
-Gil Brown's athleticism is a force to be reckoned with at times. He's definitely a little on the wild side and still very raw, but when he matches up with opposing swing men types, they just have a ton of trouble playing him the right way even if he's having an off night on just 1/6 shooting.
-Brad Wanamaker is one of the better reserve guards around. He's frisky defensively and is superb handling the ball. I know he projects to start at the 2 or 3 depending on the situation in the future but, aside from Levance, I think he's the best ball handler on the roster. He's also very smart and makes great passes and plays.
-Ashton Gibbs was his usual serviceable self and is at least giving me some confidence when he comes into the games, as opposed to early in the season when he made me fret every time he brought the ball up. I don't mind seeing him get 7-8 minutes a night to spell Levance.
-I was very impressed by the work of Nasir Robinson, and I think, like I said here a few weeks ago, that he HAS to get more minutes as the season progresses. I originally compared him to Gil Brown, and while the size and athleticism are there, he's already more physical than Gil and plays better inside than him even if he struggles at the perimeter and has questionable ball handling ability. I like the work he gaves us at the 4, and I wouldn't mind taking advantage of that athleticism for 5-10 minutes a game against a slower power forward.

I guarantee that Syracuse fans are going to bitch and moan about the refs in this game. In fact, I already have seen that on the message boards (a given for fans to whine there, but this is more than usual given the weirdness of the game), but the officiating seemed equal to me. Blair was getting basically sucker punched half the time he had the ball inside, and Syracuse was leaping around at their offensive zone going consistently over the back and nothing was being called. Pitt was doing the same, no question about it, but it was equal. The technicals, well, I don't know enough about that because it's hard to tell anything about T's when you're at the game, like I was. It's all about context, and while Harris' I have no idea about, Jackson's was a no question about it T. He gave Blair an arms-extended shove after a basket, and Blair fell backwards. You HAVE to call a T there, it was blatant and the refs made it plainly obvious they weren't going to stand for that kind of play.

But maybe all these complaints lead to a larger issue here. Is the Big East becoming too physical? I personally don't think so, but it is becoming clear that the refs are having a very difficult time officiating a lot of these games because you could call a foul every single time down the court on somebody. Hell you could probably call a flagrant just about every other time down the court. I don't really mind the style of play so long as the refs call it the same way all game long, and that was my big complaint about the Louisville game. The refs were blowing their whistles like crazy early in that one, and then as the game wore on, they realized they were on pace to call about 200 fouls and ended up swallowing the whistles when they probably should have been calling at least some fouls.

Live Blog of Panthers- Cardinals

5:58 We are live from... our apartment in Oakland! All set to put together a live blog of the Pitt-Louisville basketball game that is slated to get under way in precisely two minutes. This game boasts the number one team in the nation (god I will never tire of saying that) matching up against the 20th ranked Louisville Cardinals in Louisville's Freedom Hall. The key players for our Panthers are, of course, DeJuan "The Windex Man" Blair, Sam I Am Young, and Levance Fields. For the Cards, its freshman star Samardo Samuels, Earl Clark, and 10th year senior Terrance Williams (just kidding of course, it only SEEMS like he's been there since the 80s.) Should be fun.

6:00 Soooo....yeah the Big Ten matchup of Illinois-Michigan State is going long. Its not enough that the Big Ten has to play awful basketball, they have to play slow awful basketball that forces the rest of us to inadvertantly watch them disgrace the James Naismith's game? Just appalling.

6:05 Evidently the tipoff has been delayed until 6:10 PM. Well okay then. By the way, I've seen youth league YMCA basketball games that were more interesting and better played than this atrocity of a game. There's still 3:56 left in this trainwreck.

6:11 ESPN is so appalled by having to broadcast this Big Eleven disaster with its 0.0 Nielsen rating that it briefly takes us to a split screen of Pitt-Ville where Ty Biggs drains a trey. Then they immediately switch back to Illinois-MSU. What a tease.

6:16 Panthers are up 9-2 right now and we are still suffering through this worthless Big Eleven game. I'm freaking out right now, I've seen more Big Eleven basketball today than I have in my entire life, and I understand why that is so. These teams would get debacled by Pitt.

6:18 Hey Michigan State finally F-Ing wins this game. ESPN can't cut the chord to that one fast enough. Ahhhh.... Big East basketball. Thank God. Of course they are at a media timeout. All 5 Pitt starters have scored we are told.

6:20 Superb! The wonderful Bill Raftery is calling the game alongside Sean McDonough and Fran Frischilla. This is a pretty good crew calling our game. "Send it in Jerome!"

6:21 Jermaine Dixon welcomes us to the game by nailing a 3. He is playing about 1,000 times better in the last couple games.

6:23 What happened to Edgar Sosa? Wasn't this guy supposed to be a really good player when he came here. I just looked up his stats and he has gotten worse statistically every year since he got to Louisville.

6:28 Edgar Sosa gets hacked going to the basket and falls away from the basket out of control and does a weird hug/dance thing with one of the refs. Kinda creepy. I don't think anyone knew what the hell to make out it. The Panthers are driving me crazy right now. Louisville is picking up steals and offensive boards all over the place right now. Despite a nice lead, I'm seeing a lot of the danger signs of sloppy first half play for the third game in a row.

6:36 Jermaine Dixon breathes on Terrence Williams the wrong way and gets called for a foul. This refs are calling a lot, a LOT of fouls right now. If this keeps us, there are going to be a fair amount of players on both teams in trouble.

6:40 Pitt has let the Ville back into this game, it's 23-17 as we head to a media timeout with 7:57 remaining. Too much sloppiness for Pitt after the red-hot start that no one actually saw. Ville is on a 10-3 run right now.

6:44 The refs appear to have wagered heavily, very heavily on Louisville, as Sam Young gets his second foul and is likely done for the half. Then, a Louisville player commits aggravated assault on Levance Fields and nothing gets called.

6:47 DeJuan Blair gets his second foul at the same time the ref's shirt gets untucked to reveal Cardinal Red underneath. What a bunch of B.S. Louisville takes their first lead of the game, but having 8 men on the court (including the refs) will do that.

6:50 After watching Gary McGhee play defense like he's missing a chromosome, I've determined Pitt would be better off playing with 4 men on the floor then with 4 and Mcghee.

6:55 Please God can Pitt learn to shoot free throws one of these F-ing years? Ashton Gibbs clanks two critical ones and Pitt is down 3 right now, 29-26.

6:58 Louisville is pwning Pitt on their offensive glass. I've never seen Pitt get shoved around like this on the glass. Of course DeJuan and Sammy haven't played in like an hour, so that might have something to do with it. I'd like to think we could at least hang with them though. I guess not.

7:03 And that's a half... Pitt surprisingly is up 32-30. If you had told me Sam and DeJuan would miss huge chunks of the first half with foul trouble I would not have expected to be up on Louisville at the half. So I'll take that, at least. Back for the second half.
SECOND HALF
7:20 We are back and the its good to see Sam and DeJuan back in the ball game. I'm nervous as to how the Cardinals are going to attack the foul-ridden Panthers. Biggs immediately picks up a foul, his 3rd, and this alarming stat is dropped on us: 6 PANTHERS HAD 2 FOULS AT HALFTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey dumbass refs, I think you may be calling a shade too many fouls!

7:24 DeJuan Blair is making his presence felt right now. He picks up an offensive board and dunks it in traffic and then next possession down grabs another offensive board and gets a foul called against the Cards for a reach-in.

7:26 Panthers are on a mini-run, a 7-0 stretch capped by a Sam Young trey. The anouncers celebrate it by making a weird reference implying that they went out drinking with Bill Hillgrove and Dick Groat last night. Sounds like a grand old time.

7:31 Our first Sam Young shot fake of the evening. Man I was way off! I had 6:25 in the poll. Anyway it sets up a Jermaine Dixon trey, his third of the night. If Dixon can keep up the great work on threes he could turn into a real weapon and give them the one thing they are really lacking.

7:32 Crap. DeJuan picks up his 3rd foul on a silly reach-in. He heads to the bench. Gil comes back down the court on the next possession and picks up HIS third foul. Biggs, Blair, and Brown all have three now. Not good folks, not at all good.

7:35 Sam does a double ball/head fake. That's like the unicorn of Sam Young fakes. We just saw a truly special moment. of course he celebrates by turning the ball over almost immediately after.

7:36 Biggs is freaking OWNING the offensive glass. He is a tremendous inside role guy and continues to do his season-long impression of Chevy Troutman. Sam hits a banker after Biggsy gets those 2 offensive boards. 46-39 Panthers. Timeout Ville.

7:38 Okay this can't possibly be right, but ESPN is telling me that Tim Frye played in the first half of the game. Uhmm... What? The same Tim Frye who is the stereotypical short walk-on white guard who plays only in the final minute of blowouts? I mean I know Pitt was in foul trouble, but that can't be right can it? There's no way I could have missed that, right?

7:43 Sam makes a great steal but can't control as he is racing downcourt and tosses one to Dixon who tosses it to Fields who, clearly trying to look elsewhere for a fancy pass or something, lets it slip out of bounds. Bad job by Levance who sometimes will do things like that to drive you crazy. The Cardinals come down and score to make it 46-42.

7:44 Jermaine Dixon is having a spectacular day. he snatches a rebound, outlets to Levance who races upcourt and somehow Jermaine makes it all the way back up court and takes a bounce pass from Fields for a layup. This kid is turning into a legit offensive weapon all of a sudden, and I, for one, am stunned by his exponential upward progress. I guess he just needed to get comfortable or something, but he's been great. 48-42 Panthers

7:47 DeJuan Blair comes back in. I will be watching closely to see how Louisville attacks him and how he responds. Just as I type this, Sam makes an easy steal and puts in an absolute monster dunk on a breakaway. He walks menacingly away from the hoop looking like he's ready to run through a brick wall or something. The boy is fired up.

7:50 I haven't mentioned this yet, but Jamie Dixon is employing Brad Wanamaker in a point guard role to bring the ball up against the Louisville press. I'm not sure why exactly he's doing this, but he is doing a tremendous job at it.

7:51 DeJuan picks up his 4th on a ticky-tack 4th foul. It wasn't much of anything, but Blair took an unnecessary chance and paid the price. The kid still needs to learn.

7:53 All of a sudden Louisville is only down by a point as Pitt spends three straight defensive possessions crapping themselves and taking dumb shots on offense. I don't get how they can fall apart so quick when Blair comes out of the game like that. Grrr.... Pitt had a 10 point lead at one point. I had a feeling the Cards would work their way back into this sucker, but I didn't think that THIS would happen, especially so quickly.

7:55 Bill Raftery gives us what we wanted all day... a little parody for Sam Young's earlier dunk, shouting, "Send it in... Jerome!"

7:58 Blazing hot Jermaine Dixon drills a pair of free throws, Pitt is up by 3. He now has 18 points on the night. I have a done a total 180 on this kid in the past week or two.

8:01 A monster dunke for Louisville and this sucker is tied up. Yikes. We head into the last media timeout 58-58. They just showed the replay of the dunk and Gil Brown had an alarming petrified look on his face. Not what I want to see there Gil.

8:06 Levance Fields gets called for a foul that I think the Louisville fans made from the first row. Especially because the ref clearly signalled double foul at first and then pretended like he didn't. What f-ing garbage. Such a homer call. Cardinals are up because of this homerism.

8:08 Biggs makes a god-awful pass to Blair. Just a terrible idea. 19 turnovers for Pitt today as they are playing crazy sloppy right now.

8:11 Here we go, 1:07 to go in this puppy. It's gonna be a fight. 62-58 Cardinals right now.

8:12 Clark hits a monster shot as the shot clock expired. Not sure if its a 2 or 3, the refs are reviewing. I think its a 2 though. Yup it is. Shit. 64-58 Louisville. Pitt is hanging on by a thread, if that. The worst part is Clark hopping around like an idiot afterward. I hate that.

8:14 For some bizarre reason, after Louisville grabs a rebound after another missed 3 for Pitt, the Panthers take about 10 seconds to foul a Cardinal player. Just sloppy and not wanting it enough.

8:17 Truely bizarre, DeJuan Blair gets fouled as he goes to score and the bucket is good. Pitt down 66-62. Pitt may not have the best odds right now, but at least they still have some odds...

8:19 Louisville hits both free throws to go up 68-63. It's over now. Oh, and then Sam Young makes an awful inbound pass and Blair fouls out trying to get the ball back. Ugh.

8:22 Yup that's a wrap, 69-63 Cardinals. Pitt drops its first game of the season. I don't think I'll be doing another one of these anytime soon. Sorry Panthers for jinxing you guys. Still, it was a very good effort, and kind of a weird game filled with lots of runs and streaks. I'll be interested to see where we rank come Monday morning.

Impressions From Pitt-Georgetown

After countless critics questioned just how good the Pitt men's hoops squad really was for the better part of November and December, Jamie Dixon's crew went out and made a very powerful statement earlier today in whooping up on Georgetown 70-54. Leading the way for our Panthers was DeJuan Blair who, after a dreadful M.I.A effort against Rutgers a few days ago, was an absolute beast out on the court. Blair put up a 20 point, 17 rebound effort, and set the tone for the Panthers early and often. The Panthers dominated the Hoyas on the glass, outrebounding them by an incredible 43-17 margin. Pitt had 18 offensive boards to Georgetown's 4, another incredible margin. Some other impressions:

-The much ballyhooed "next great Georgetown center" Greg Monroe has a long LONG way to go to live up to the hype. Yeah the guy can fill the basket, as he put up 15 points, but defensively he is an absolute liability against savvy offensive players like our marvelous DeJuan Blair.

-Let's hope Gil Brown is okay after going down with a shoulder injury late in the game. Brown was a real difference maker for the Panthers today, using his incredible athleticism to really cause some big time matchup problems for the Hoyas. Brown is further cementing himself as a guy who can do it all, as he played the 2, 3, and 4 for extended periods in the game, and was excellent at each spot. At the 2 he can use his size and at the 4 he uses his speed. I think this guy has a very, very bright future ahead of him as a pro someday. For now, he is a spectacular force coming off of the bench.

-Speaking of great bench play, how about the work of Brad Wanamaker the last two games? Who or what lit a fire under his butt? After pouring in a career-high 15 against Rutgers, Wanamaker may not have filled the stat sheet quite as well (5 points, 4 boards, 2 helpers), but he was excellent out there. I've never been a believer of Brad's in the past, and never could understand the appeal of him to Jamie Dixon, but I am a believer in him now and think he will be a big part of this team's success as the 7th man.

-How about Tyrell Biggs doing his best Chevy Troutman impression? Biggs is a perfect mucker-and-grinder type of role guy, and today he showed a strong knack for taking advantage of the space opponents are forced to give him when Blair is lighting it up as he was today. If Blair keeps playing like a force of nature, Biggs will benefit as much as anyone, and let's hope the efficiency (7/10 shooting today) continues.

-Very little was demonstrated by our deep bench guys that reassured me we can survive if either Levance Fields or Blair is in foul trouble or (knocking on wood) injured. Ashton Gibbs is a nerve-wracking point guard who appears very uncomfortable with the position, and Gary McGhee looks mostly like the same player he was a season ago. I hope one of these guys or a guy like Tra Woodall or Nas Robinson can make a Wanamaker-like improvement, but I'm not holding my breath.

-How did I get this far in without mentioning Sam Young and Levance Fields? Fields, despite what some announcers say, looks as close to 100% as ever, and continues to be nothing short of brilliant as a point guard. He is one of the national leaders in assist/turnover ratio, and certainly did nothing to hurt his status with an 8 Assist 0 Turnover performance. He also got Georgetown sharpshooter DeJuan Summers very, very irritated. Hard to say if this had anything to do with it, but Summers was not nearly as effective after getting T'ed up. Not saying it was a great thing to happen (Fields was T'ed up too) but maybe, just maybe Fieldsy got in his head a little bit.

-As for Sam, it was something of a ho-hum day for him. He put in 14 points and snatched 8 rebounds, but this wasn't a vintage Sam I Am game. Don't get me wrong, he played well defensively, and you could tell G'town was definitely keeping an eye on him at all times when the Panthers were on offense, but we've all seen better from Sam. With that said, it was very encouraging to see the Panthers look so crisp and be so successful without Young having to go for 20+ points and be the go-to option. Be quite sure that we will see many teams make shutting down Young their number 1 priority this season, so if the other guys on the roster can learn what they have to do to win when this happens, the Panthers will be all the better for it.

-I'm still having a lot of trouble forming a real opinion on Jermaine Dixon. Defensively, he seems very good, though I did notice at least two lapses on his part, but it wasn't because of a lack of talent, so it can at least be corrected. Offensively, if his shots aren't falling early, he seems to disappear. I'll stand by my statement that I made a couple weeks ago: Jermaine Dixon may be a starter for the whole season, but Gil Brown will be the finisher. And Brown would have been the finisher today had it not been for the injury. I also might add Brad Wanamaker to the role of a finisher over Dixon right now, too. Dixon was a miserable 1/7 on field goals and 0/5 on treys. Jamie Dixon needs to get Jermaine touches from inside the arc. He seems fine from the 15 foot range, yet is inept on 3-pointers. I would take that 3-point option mostly out of his hands and get him to take more close jumpers. If he starts to hit those and gain some confidence and gain a good feel, THEN allow him more rope to attempt the long bombs.

Pitt Basketball Update

I haven't done anything with Pitt basketball in a few weeks, and with the Panthers sticking mostly to the playing-as-many-bad-teams-as-humanly-possible logic of non-conference scheduling, there isn't really a whole lot to say until the Big East season gets fired up in a few weeks. And while I was at the game last night and watched the Panthers coast, I don't really have a ton of stuff to add to the kinds of things you already know. Still, here are some random thoughts.

-Gary McGhee put 6 points on the board, which I have to believe is a career-high. Don't be fooled into thinking he is making some kind of Aaron Gray-like progress, though. All 3 of his made shots were monster slam dunks that would've never happened against a good team. But at least he has that shot down. Oh and by the way, I figured out who Gary McGhee looks like: That's right the Koopa Troopas from the Super Mario Bros. Movie!!! Especially those top two pictures. Anyway, I think McGhee might be making some strides, but I wouldn't expect to see much of him come the Big East season, as he does not look like he's progressed enough just yet, and this means the Panthers will once again be one of the more undersized teams in the league.

-I like what I see out of Nas Robinson in the limited amount of work he's had so far this season. However, I highly doubt we'll really see much of Nas once Big East play rolls around, and it will have little to do with how the talented true freshman is playing. He is just too similar of a player to Gil Brown, and since Gil is such a dynamic force on the wing and is definitely further along, I think Nas will likely be relegated mainly to mop-up duty or playing when others are in foul trouble.

-Why is Tyrell Biggs shooting from the perimeter? I found myself asking that twice early on in the game last night. One was from just inside the three point line so it didn't show up as a long-ranger on the stat sheet, but still he clanged two in the first few minutes as the Panthers got off to a very slow start.

-I was very impressed by Ashton Gibbs' scoring skills last night. Granted his 13 points in 11 minutes were mostly mop-up, but the kid has some definite ability, and I think should be given some more opportunities to play if he can keep filling the basket like that.

-Despite a 35 point W, the Panthers were very ho-hum last night, and I've yet to see this team really be challenged by a legitimately talented team. Wazzou and Texas Tech are both okay teams that idle in the middle of decent conferences, but neither compares to the cream of the crop in the Big East. Siena will be an interesting game because the Saints are a frisky mid-major squad that has some tournament experience and knows how to play with the big boys, even if this team doesn't appear to be the school's best in recent years. They played within 14 of Tennessee a few weeks back, but even that one likely won't pose a big challenge to the Panthers, at least I hope, and Florida State doesn't figure to either, even though the game is in Tallahassee, so the Panthers figure to go into Big East play 12-0, where they start at the always tricky RAC against Rutgers. Until that day comes, it's going to be tough to really gauge just how good this Panthers squad is, but they've done nothing to suggest they don't deserve their lofty ranking yet. Let's hope it stays that way.

Impressions From Pitt-Fairleigh Dickinson

The Pitt Panthers began their march toward defending their Big East title this evening (even though this game had nothing to do with how they will be seeded come Big East tourney time) and the school noted this championship in a very high-profile and pride-inducing manner by way of a nice little banner-raising ceremony prior to the game. Each of the players from last season's squad were publicly announced, the scores of the games were announced, and then, with the lights out and a single spotlight on, the championship banner was slowly raised to the rafters at the Pete.

Anywho... here are some impressions formulated from my spot amidst the inmates at the Oakland Zoo:

First of all, DeJuan Blair looked like an absolute BEAST out there on the court. Blair was a scoring machine, was the ultimate windex man (cleaning the glass), and had his usual surprisingly adept quick hands in scraping up a few steals with a double-double and a pair of steals. I think Blair could be poised for an even bigger season than originally thought. He was a court leader out there too, an even bigger surprise to me, given the seniority of the team's other stars.

The team's other pre-season star, Sam Young, looked like he was a little bit of adjustment issues from his new spot at the 3. He took a few early 3's and clanked each one and ended the game at an 0 for 4 clip from downtown. He also didn't spend enough time early on fighting his man inside on the offensive zone, and if you had seen the guy that was attempting to guard our beloved 2-3, you would have seen just how easily Young could have dominated this guy. And like I said, while his opposing 3 wasn't anything special, Sammy did show that he is capable of guarding a typical 3 on the perimeter as well as absolutely obliteratiing him if he dared try to head inside. Playing outside also didn't really prevent his typical inside presence defensively. He only pulled in 3 boards but he was in on several others and helped out countless times. I do think that we could see him hit some dry spells early on if he continues to play on the perimeter too much, as that long range tre definitely could use some work. It will be very interesting to see how this work-in-progress continues as the season goes along.

Levance Fields surprised just about everyone in the house when it was announced during the pregame intros that he was going to be in the starting lineup. I was pretty skeptical of this decision by Jamie Dixon to allow our hobbled point man to play, but Fields showed absolutely no ill effects from the foot injury and looked like his usual warrior self at the point, playing typically selfless and smart ball with 8 helpers and pouring in a somewhat unusually high 15 points, including an impressive 5 for 5 from the charity stripe.

Tyrell Biggs looked like every bit the role player I expected him to be. That may not sound like a compliment, but it actually is. This squad doesn't need anyone to carry the scoring load, unlike past Pitt squads that had 5 guys averaging double digits. With Young and Blair both likely to go over 15 a game most nights, Fields likely to get double digits, and an incredibly deep bench, they need guys like Biggs who are happy to play 25-30 minutes and only grab a handful of shots while grabbing some serious rebounds and playing really tough D on the opposing team's 4 and 5's.

The new guys made some interesting first impressions. For all the impressive numbers and efforts put up by Ashton Gibbs in the 2 pre-season games, Travon Woodall looked like the better of the two to me tonight. Woodall had 5 assists and very rarely looked for his own shot, whereas Gibbs appeared a bit more selfish, though it may have been because he played some serious garbage minutes, but he had just 1 assist to go with a turnover. Nasir Robinson showed the impressive athleticism that made him the most heralded recruit on the roster, but he looks pretty raw to me. He reminds me a bit of Gilbert Brown with less polish. I think his minutes may be hard to come by after Brown returns unless he shows more polish as the season goes along. Lastly, Jermaine Dixon did a solid job from his starting spot at the 2, but if Gil Brown comes back healthy, I think he eventually takes that job from Jermaine. Dixon looked solid out there, and it's still early to really get a good handle on what kind of player he could be, but you can tell immediately he isn't in the same ballpark as Gilbert in the athleticism department. He looked like he had the smarts for the job though, and my bet for now will be a platoon situation at the 2.

As for the others, well Gary McGhee was clumsy, Brad Wanamaker disappeared for a while and still doesn't impress me much and I think will fall down toward the bottom of the depth chart, and Dwight Miller didn't play and is likely headed for a redshirt.

One final note before I go, I was certainly concerned with the lack of 3 point shooters on the roster. Levance and Ashton Gibbs both were productive from beyond the arc, a fact I neglected when I discussed Ashton earlier, and a fact that could make a difference in his playing time if he keeps this up. Sammy struggled, and Jermaine Dixon was a mildly alarming 0 for 3 from out there, as well. Travon Woodall was the only other Panther to attempt a bomb, and was 1 for 2 for the day.